That was when I realized where the water was coming from.
My car was sliding slowly off the shoulder of the road and into the bay. The water wasn’t deep enough for the car to sink completely, but I was still trapped inside a heavy piece of metal during high tide.
The next few seconds were a blur of breathless panic. I wasn’t sure how I got the window down, only that I was treading water, sinking into thick, murky sand.
I was barely on solid ground when I saw them. The SUV was parked haphazardly on the side of the road, both doors open. Two men were walking toward me—slow. Unhurried.
My head hurt. Cold burned in my lungs. Dizziness blurred the edges of my vision.
I ran anyway.
The bigger one was watching me, eyes still eerily bright, even turned away from the sun.
I remembered the man at the boat launch.
It wasn’t the same man, but they felt the same. Those eyes. The angles of their face.
The same shadows that carved Jay’s face when he was in a mood.
I didn’t know that man, but I’d seenthatface before.
I ran like I’d never run before, a concrete world spinning past me as I disappeared between the buildings. There was a steel door secured shut on the nearest building. I tugged at it frantically, biting back a sound when it wouldn’t budge.
There was another door a few hundred feet up.
Locked.
By the third door, I gave up, running further into the graveyard of buildings and hoping I could outpace them. Theroad was empty now, no traffic coming either direction, but maybe if I waited a car would come.
Footsteps scuffed behind me. Male voices echoed between buildings. Adrenaline pumped through me so fast I couldn’t think straight.
I reached into my pocket, realizing too late that my phone was somewhere in my car.
“He told us not to hurt her,” I heard one man tell the other, far too close to where I stood.
I rushed around the corner of the nearest building, pressing my back to the cool concrete and holding my breath.
“She was getting away,” another voice answered gruffly.
“You could have killed her!”
Flesh hit flesh. The shadow of a man curved around the corner where I hid, bending in the fading light as he stumbled.
“You need to learn your place, boy.” The words were guttural. Dark. “You’re the bottom of the food chain in this pack. And I’m getting hungry.”
The second man took a step back, close enough that if he turned his head even a fraction, he would see me.
My lungs were on fire. I needed to breathe. To run.
But I didn’t dare move, afraid even the slightest shift of my sneaker would alert them to my presence.
Beside me, the second man shifted his weight, his nostrils flaring. He was muscular and tall, but his height had the gangly quality of a teenager. From here, I could see a constellation of freckles across his face, partially obscured by the grey-green of a fading bruise.
Blood trickled from his lip and he twisted to wipe it with the back of his hand. For a heartbeat our eyes locked.
I froze there, unblinking.
The kid lifted his other hand, pointing in the opposite direction of me. “She’s over there!”